Organic polysulfides are useful for many purposes such as additives for elastomers, antioxidants for lubricating oils, intermediates for the production of organic chemicals, insecticides, and germicides and additives for diesel fuels to improve cetane number and ignition qualities. Organic polysulfides are also useful in the compounding of high pressure lubricants and in the acceleration of rubber treating processes.
It is known that organic polysulfides can be produced by reacting mercaptans with elemental sulfur in the presence of a basic catalyst. The crude organic polysulfide product produced by such a reaction typically comprises a distribution of various organic polysulfides (for example, disulfides, trisulfides, and tetrasulfides), hydrogen sulfide, at least one solid byproduct, and at least one gelatinous byproduct. Generally, the crude organic polysulfide product is further processed to obtain a purified organic polysulfide product.
One process employed to obtain a purified organic polysulfide product is the removal of the solid and gelatinous byproducts from the crude organic polysulfide product. The solid and gelatinous byproducts are typically removed by passing the crude organic polysulfide product through a filter. Due to the buildup of solid and gelatinous byproducts within the filter, such filter must be cleaned periodically.
The cleaning of the byproduct filter is a labor intensive operation wherein the filter assembly is dismantled and the filtered byproducts are manually removed. In addition, such manual cleaning of the filter is an unpleasant task due to the foul order of the filtered byproducts. Thus, it is desirable to develop an apparatus and process for producing a purified organic polysulfide product which substantially decreases the frequency of required manual cleanings of the byproduct filter.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved process and apparatus for producing organic polysulfides.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved process and apparatus for removing solid and gelatinous byproducts from a crude organic polysulfide product.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a process and apparatus which substantially decreases the frequency of required manual cleanings of a filter which removes solid and gelatinous byproducts from a crude organic polysulfide product.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent as the invention is more fully disclosed hereinbelow.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a process is provided comprising the steps of (a) trapping at least one solid material and at least one gelatinous material in a filtering means, (b) contacting the gelatinous material with a solvent to produce a degraded gelatinous material capable of passing through the filtering means, and (c) passing the degraded gelatinous material through the filtering means.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus is provided which comprises (a) a filtering means, (b) a solvent source connected with the filtering means, and (c) a solvent flow control means for controlling the flow of a solvent between the solvent source and the filtering means.